Letters

Congratulations to the Los Alamos High School Symphonic Strings and their director Michael Gyurick for their Popejoy performance in Albuquerque at the New Mexico Educators Association All-State Music Conference Jan. 6.
The group was selected by audition tape as the Conference’s Honor Orchestra for 2011. From the lively opening of Gustav Holst’s “St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra,” to the spirited Aaron Copland “Hoe Down,” the students performed with opulent tone and youthful exuberance.

For 10 years, it was my honor to represent constituents of my legislative district in the New Mexico Legislature. Through those years, we encountered numerous heated debates in the course of a normal day. Not once did any of us from either political party concern ourselves with the possibility of a lunatic firing actual bullets at us.

I was surprised and saddened by the action taken by the county council on Dec. 15 when they decided to fire County Administrator Tony Mortillaro. As reported in the Los Alamos Monitor, the investigative report showed there was no illegal, unethical or immoral behavior on Tony’s part. Yet, this lame duck council chose to take this drastic action.
Tony has been an administrator for Los Alamos County for more than six years; he has served as county administrator for one and a half years. He is a qualified, competent, experienced administrator.

I was bit by a “white shepherd-type” dog while running in the canyon behind Walnut Park around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
The dog’s owner was a blonde woman who had with her three to four other dogs — all off leash. She attempted to get their attention with a dog whistle, but was unsuccessful. The dog tore my running pants, went through my compression sock and broke my skin. I was in such shock that I didn’t think to get her name and/or address.

My holiday started out on a sour note when my dog got spooked while hiking on the ski hill on Christmas Eve and ran away.
Miraculously, he survived in the mountains for over a week and was finally found early on New Years day.
Throughout that week, the response from the community of Los Alamos was overwhelming.
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, calls, e-mails, advice, encouragement and support during what was definitely a very emotional and difficult week.

Recently, Los Alamos County has made East Park a very attractive place for recreation. The dog park is very popular as is the hiking trail that winds around the top of Pueblo Canyon.
The miniature golf was a brilliant idea, trees, shrubs and flowers surround it and other trees have been planted over the last few years throughout the area.

I was rather dismayed to see that you chose to publish a letter from the Grinch, aka “The Truth Fairy,” derisively “informing” the now very adult Virginia that “there is no Santa Claus.”
On the contrary, although my religion does not recognize the origins of the “jolly old elf,” I think that Mr. Church made a very strong case that Santa Claus does “exist,” based on the abundance of generosity and love that appears annually in December, as we saw again here in our own county this year.

As one who signed the Hannemann petition, I would like to add my two cents.
When approached outside Casa Mesita, my questions were “Isn’t this a little late in the process?, and Isn’t the county ready to go out on bids for the cave lots?” The answer was no.
At first I declined to sign, but then the philosopher in me came out and I thought “Why not democracy?”
And I have to admit I knew this was going to cause a ruckus and there is just too little entertainment in this town, so I signed.

Dear Virginia - It has been a while since you wrote a letter to the New York Sun seeking information regarding the existence of Santa Claus.
At the time, Mr. Francis Pharcellus Church was assigned to respond to your letter. According to my records, Mr. Church answered at length, assuring you that Santa Claus is real.